Post #657148 by Capt. R.H. Falernum on Mon, Oct 29, 2012 12:09 PM

The movie was pretty spectacular -- in both scope & content.
Presented in a travelogue format (a documentary-like depiction of a few individuals' fictional journeys), the film took us from a cruise to Hawaii (with plenty of aerial views of the island and some great surfing footage), across the Pacific to Tahiti, Fiji, New Zealand and then Australia. The stories are driven almost entirely by narration (much like 'Endless Summer') with very little on-screen sound (except for some conversation in the second half and the live performances from Don the Beachcomber). The narration has a very charming quality to it, even if it is a bit saccharine.

The film is split into two halves (separated by an intermission) and has some great music within the Overture and Entr'acte.

Any tikiphile will most likely LOVE the first half of the film -- which is filled with beautiful footage of tropical locales including the aforementioned visit to Don the Beachcomber (which runs for several minutes and includes a few extended excerpts from their live show).

The second half is almost entirely consumed with an awkward and fairly uninteresting look into Australia's Outback (and their "School of the Air" and "Royal Flying Doctor Service"). It's hard not to come away thinking that the promotional information in the second act paid for the beautiful & exotic footage of the firs act.

Hopefully, the restored film version means that a DVD version is on the way!